Dr. John C. Maxwell & Scott Lewis at an event in 2004
Resource: Important phrases in life
Author: Dr. John C. Maxwell
Intro:
- John is 58 when he gave this message
- Referenced “Forty and Counting” often
- Harold Kushner – When all you’ve wanted isn’t enough
- “The good life” defined: Knowing your purpose in life and doing the things you love.
1. Less is good.
- Downsize workload
- “Nothing is really work unless you’d rather be doing something else”
- “I have arrived. Is this where I wanted to go?”
- Downsize responsibility
- Give up to go up
- Pay now play later
2. Time is limited
- “You don’t pay for things with money, you pay for things with time.”
- 1000 Marbles – 3900 Saturdays in your life
- Knowing my days are numbered requires me to prioritize my life (pre planned decision) and partner with others.
3. Focus is essential
- Charles Dickens is described as a person who does one thing and nothing else.
- Love is an agreement by two people to overestimate one another.
- In great relationships the joy of being together is enough.
4. Change is inevitable
- Just a fact of life
- Believes in: personal growth, making a significant contribution, living and working with passion, 100% commitment to excellence, looking for the potential in people, life changing impact of good leadership, team leadership, value of equipping and providing resources for others, living a life of integrity, power of sovereignty and blessing of God.
- Leaving well: have something to leave, have somewhere to go, have someone to go with, have something to hold onto.
5. God is good
- Charles Spurgeon – God is too good to be unkind and He’s too wise to be confused.
Application: Spend 15 minutes in your thinking chair and write down phrases that anchor my life.
Important Phrases from my life so far:
- “I love you” – Stephanie Lewis
- “Believe the best about people” – Ryan MacCarthy
- ” You have not had a clear thought if you cannot communicate it on paper” – Dan George
- “Everything rises and falls on leadership” – Dr. John Maxwell
- The Stockdale Paradox from Good to Great – “This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
- Plan my time – Moses from Psalm 90
- “There is no enduring relationships without forgiveness” – Dr. James MacDonald